Riverdance Blog

Planes, Trains & Automobiles..

From planes to trains and buses this week has been a busy one. We visited many amazing places and experienced things you wouldn’t even dream of!! The panda park in Chengdu is an example of such a place. This is a research base of Giant Panda Breeding. We spent the day wandering around the park admiring all the different pandas. A few people made a donation which entitled them to ‘Hug A Panda’

“It was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had. Getting to hang out with this amazing creature has been the highlight of my time here in China so far.” says Xander

Some of the guys also went to visit Leshan’s Giant Buddha which is the largest stone Buddha in the world. It is a 233ft tall stone statue carved out of a cliff with rivers flowing between it’s feet. It’s pretty impressive!!!

This week we celebrated Jason and Marita’s birthdays. For Jason’s birthday we went to this really cool place called the bookworm. It was recommended by some of the others that have been here before.

As for Maritas, we celebrated it on the 21st floor of a quirky building. The best part of the night was when we gathered outside and let off Chinese Wish Lanterns.

Lead dancer, James Greenan connected the cast of Riverdance and the Sinostage crew this week in Chengdu. It was to lovely to be able to share our dance experience, learn from and inspire each other! “Dance is truly a universal language which brings people all over the world together”

The highlight of the week for me was jetting off to Beijing on the day off to perform for the Irish president, Michael D. Higgins and his wife, Sabina in the Forbidden City. The lads performed Distant Thunder and the girls, AnnaLivia. To close the concert we performed a trad piece with Irish musician, Sharon Shannon. It was an amazing experience and a wonderful opportunity, especially for the Irish!

Stay tuned next week for an insight on what the cast of the Riverdance Moy Company do in their spare time on tour (apart from being tourists).

What dancers can expect from the summer school?

Riverdance’s Ryan McCaffery and James Keating talk about life on tour, meeting people from many backgrounds, making good friends and what dancers can expect from the Riverdance Trinity College Dublin Summer School next July.